Portable cooler cabinets are in general use for containment of soft drinks, beer, cream and other edibles that need to be kept at low temperatures. Ice or solid CO.sub.2 is deposited into the cooler to provide the necessary cooling effect.
These portable coolers are usually rectangular box-like structures having minimum dimensions on the order of one foot high, two feet long, and one foot wide. The box structures are open at the top to receive a lid. The lid may be completely removable from the box or connected to the box via hinges. In either event the lid fits rather tightly against the upper rim surface of the box in order to form a seal that prevents such air circulation into or out of the box as might lead to premature loss of cooling effect of the ice within the box.
Commonly these cooler cabinets are double walled structures, i.e. structures wherein the bottom and sides are each formed of two spaced apart plastic walls; the wall spacing may be on the order of one inch, which is sufficient to form a significant thermal barrier between the space inside the cooler cabinet and the space outside the cooler cabinet. The lids for the cooler cabinets are also of double walled construction, such that the cabinet and lid cooperatively form a complete thermal barrier around the soft drinks, etc. contained within the cabinet.
It would be desirable to equip these cooler cabinets with key-operated locks. However the double-walled nature of the cooler construction makes it difficult to mount conventional lock devices on the cabinet and lid surfaces. Part of the problem is the fact that the lid lower surface must seat flush against the upwardly facing rim surface of the cabinet in order to maintain an air seal around the cabinet perimeter. The lock components cannot protrude any appreciable distances from the lid surface or cabinet surface; otherwise the air seal will be lost.
My invention relates to a relatively low cost lock assembly that can be mounted on the lids and cabinets of conventional double-walled coolers. The lock components are designed to be substantially flush with the exposed cabinet-lid surfaces, so that the locking action is achieved without adversely affecting the necessary cooling action taking place within the cabinet.